Obama as organizer

[Omaha Steve]

http://sb.city2.org/blogs/rflacks/blog_entries/1263-obama-as-organizer/blog_comments/new

Obama as organizer
Posted by rflacks on September 20 2009

Every liberal and progressive blogger is advising the president about strategies for change--except for those who are busy voicing their disappointment and disillusionment with him.

The strongest criticisms are about the many compromises built into the president's policies: the weakness of the financial regulation he's proposing, the refusal to support single payer health-care reform (and the seeming backing away from the 'government option'), the escalation of the Afghanistan war, the many compromises with the CIA on 'torture' issues, the failure to support gay rights, etc. Many progressive writers may grant the need for compromise and gradualism, but are upset when Obama seems to prefer accommodation and avoids aggressive confrontation with those who are against him. 'He needs to show how tough he is if he expects to prevail', is a very popular refrain.

The left critiques are valid and necessary but they run the risk of demoralizing progressive constituencies, and of feeding the cynicism now being exploited by right wing demagogues. Instead of constructing Obama as just another politician who betrays his promises and serves the powers that be, we might think about other ways of interpreting his actions that leave room for hope.

For me the central question is this: how do you make change possible when major centers of power resist it, when political structures are set up to defeat it, when the public at large is divided and cynical about reform. Leave aside the added problems that the majority of white people in the country voted against you, and that a portion of that constituency questions your legitimacy.

Let's spell this out with a bit of simplifying shorthand about the power relations Obama has to deal with: The health-care reform Obama wants threatens the insurance and pharmaceutical complex. The climate change/energy plans he wants threaten the energy industry. The military-industrial complex and the national security apparatus are interested in preserving the imperial presidency and its war making propensities. The financial complex wants government bailout but not regulation. Talking about these 'complexes' simplifies the important divisions within these sectors, but the basic point for me is that every morning the president has to take these kinds of forces into account. ON top of which is the structure of the senate--the filibuster rule, the power of conservative Democrats representing large stretches of land with almost no people living on it.

FDR and LBJ were presidents who were able to win major reform despite these sorts of big obstacles. I'm one of a legion of left-oriented historians and sociologists who believe that what made the New Deal and the Great Society reforms possible was the rising up from below of movements demanding the change, not primarily the political skills of Roosevelt and Johnson. The labor movement of the 30s and the civil rights movement of the 60s found levers of power themselves. It wasn't simply the numbers who 'marched', it was that they tore the social fabric that was sustaining the status quo. You can get a sense of that power by reading a book like Piven and Cloward's Poor People's Movements, which spells out in some detail the ways these movements were able to win some gains because of their disruptive political, social and cultural activity.

FULL story at link.

[appamado amata padam]

1. In my own admittedly over-simplified way, I think he:

*needs to get tougher with Wall Street/insurance companies, etc.

*needs to drop diplomacy with GOP.

*needs a lot more help from Congress.

[steven johnson]

2. The community organizer approach is refreshing to me

I think President Obama is practical. And he is avoiding the most prominent mistake I see in the previous two presidents -- not listening to a wide range of opinion, options and viewpoints.

We haven't had a president till now who was so schooled in that reading of history. The best way to understand Obama, I think, is to refer to something Michelle Obama said in the early days of the campaign. She said at some point that Barack is not a politician first and foremost. He's a community activist exploring the viability of politics to make change.


Obama as organizer